Trouble With Traffic

In Two Senses
First, the actual and literal variety.  Conrad, as you surely know by now, is ever in conflict with Hermes.  NO!  Not the transport and logistics organisation.  The Greek god, obviously, who is one of the deities who oversee (or muck about with, depending on your point of view) transport.  Conrad and he have been involved in a spat for many years, involving cars and insults.
     "Where are you going with this, Conrad?" I hear you asking.  "And hurry up, it's Friday night and WE have a social life."
     Okay, okay, importunate ones.  My point is that it is now the half-term holidays.
     Normally, during half term the traffic thins out tremendously, meaning a quicker bus journey for your humble scribe.  Normally.  However, horrid Hermes is on the obstructive so we have bad fog.  No mistaking* this for mist, it was fog, which causes traffic clog.
     Then for good measure Hermes had added - roadworks!  For a week.  Only actioned at night, yet the queues of cones are there all day long.
     Normally this would inconvenience your modest artisan when he tries to get in for an early start on the bus.
     Except today I travelled in the car <snaps fingers at Hermes>

                                                                       Her. Me.

                                                                       Close enough.

Then The Blog Itself
As you know already, Conrad is a cowardly pudding with absolutely no moral fibre, and those are his good points. Consequently, the blog getting popular of late, he is slightly worried**.  24K hits plus might mean that beggar Hermes pays closer attention and there's always First Bus and The Metro to be concerned about.  If either of these became aware of BOOJUM! they would sue the shirt off my back.
     So!  Tell some of your friends.


"Whicker's War" By Alan Whicker
I doubt any of the bright young things that possibly make up a fractional demographic of BOOJUM!'s visitors will be familiar with the name Alan Whicker.  He was a globe-trotting television journalist, who fronted "Whicker's World" for decades and was popular enough in his day to be the subject of a Monty Python skit.

Allan wearing the world's largest hat

     Conrad was unfamiliar with AW's wartime service in the Army Film and Photo Unit, which put him in harm's way in the Mediterranean, first in Sicily and subsequently in Italy.  AW is typically self-effacing in his memoir, modest and deprecating, with occasional barbed comments about inept Allied generals that hit close to the mark.
     It was also a dangerous wartime career; carrying out film or photo work in the front lines meant the AFPU suffered plenty of casualties.  AW was also at Anzio, described by German veterans of the Eastern Front as much worse than Russia, which takes quite some imagining.  The horror and squalor are evocatively described by AW, who said he never expected to survive the awful event.

Alan, wearing the world's larges shoe

Too glum!  Happier stuff needed!

"Aja" By Steely Dan
The LP and the eponymous track.  Conrad first heard this album back in 1977, played by Sir John Peel and described as "odd".  Not really, to be honest, although that year was possibly the Pinnacle of Punk.  Different, perhaps, describes it rather better, and it is utterly unlike the kinds of bands John featured - The Fabulous Nipple Erectors, anyone?

Steely Dan - nothing to do with nipples

     The track itself I've not heard since 1977, but I do like it and have listened to it lots since getting the CD, and it has a great instrumental break, guitar solo, saxophone playing and percussion.  From Wiki it appears to be very complicated musically, very complicated indeed, all the terms for which went flying completely over Conrad's head.  All I know is that I like it.
     Which is all you need to know.

The Dolorous Dampness Of A Dismal Day
It really is grim outside!  It's been raining non-stop for at least four hours, wet enough that ducks would pack it in and go home.  It began so well, too, with lots of ice and sunshine.
     Which has nothing to do with "Dolorous", our word for today.  It means "To suffer distress" and - obviously! - is derived from Latin.  Specifically "Dolor" meaning "Grief", and via the French "Doleros" to Dolorous.
     Where, Conrad wonders, does this leave Dolores?

Rather like this

     I hope she doesn't take - Umbridge!  Ha*!


*  How clever am I***.
** 24,464 hits to date
*** Don't answer that question.